Lancashire suffer narrow defeat against Bears in One-Day Cup.

Lancashire suffered their second Royal London defeat this season after slipping to a marginal defeat against Warwickshire at Emirates Old Trafford.

The Bears successfully chased 266 with three wickets and one ball to spare, as the visitors held their nerve to secure their first win of the campaign. Ashwell Prince lead Lancashire’s innings with 82 after the home side were put into bat on an unused wicket and Alex Davies added a List A career-best 73 not out to guide the home side to a respectable total of 265/7.

Lancashire’s strong start was negated by a superb spell from Boyd Rankin (3-33) who claimed three wickets in as many overs to restrict the flow of runs and remove Prince while he was in his stride. It was then up to Davies to give the innings a strong finish after Prince fell and the young wicketkeeper added 73 in just 59 balls, an innings which included seven fours and two sixes.

In reply, Warwickshire paced their run-chase perfectly and skipper Varun Chopra typified this, as he top-scored with 88  and was a pillar for his batsmen to build around.

He and Tim Ambrose (59) added 102 runs for the third-wicket partnership, a crucial stand after Lancashire had seized a great deal of initiative by removing Jonathan Trott cheaply and Will Porterfield after he had made a brisk start without any threat.

There were concerns that Lancashire would struggle on an unused wicket and one which had been covered due to early-morning rain and there was noticeable swing movement in the early stages of the innings. However, the prodigious swing was not entirely to blame for the loss of Karl Brown (7) who merely nibbled at a wider delivery from Keith Barker (2-51), edging behind to keeper Ambrose.

Lancashire recovered well after this early setback as Prince showed his intent at an early stage, hitting a four and then a six in consecutive deliveries to the short boundary on the leg side. Alviro Petersen joined in with an even bigger six towards the short boundary, hitting Rankin’s second ball of the game even further than Prince’s maximum, as Lancashire progressed to 49/1 at the end of the first ten overs.

The Port-Elizabeth duo added 50 runs in just 55 balls and Rankin was soon out of the attack after receiving some treatment from the South-African batsmen. He would have his revenge later on in the innings, but the man who replaced him, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, managed to remove Petersen for 22 after he chipped to Barker at deep mid-on following an impatient attempt to find the fence at 79/2.

The positivity of these two had given Lancashire a good start and this continued under the stewardship of Horton, who added a useful innings of 37, sharing a 75-run partnership with Prince. The left-handed maestro has scored runs for fun this season in Championship cricket, but his innings today was the first sign of success in the 50-over campaign so far, as he reached his fifty in 56 deliveries.

He and Horton added another fifty partnership in 55 balls, but their stand came to an end when Horton tickled an edge down the leg side off Ranking through to Ambrose at 154/3. Rankin returned with venom claiming three wickets in as many overs, as Lancashire lost three wickets for seven runs in the same amount of time.

Both Horton and Prince were back in the pavilion in quick succession when the latter skied Rankin into the gloves of Ambrose ten balls after the loss of Horton. Rankin struck seven balls later when he had Steven Croft caught behind for two, a procession of wickets which left Lancashire in a degree of trouble at 161/5.

Davies developed a useful innings in his partnership with James Faulkner and the keeper-batsman went on to register only his second List A fifty, adding 79 runs with Faulkner, who played an uncharacteristically passive innings while Davies flourished in the Manchester sunshine.

Lancashire’s recovery continued with Davies hitting a second six to take him to a 48-ball fifty, as he and Faulkner added a 50 partnership in 67 balls. His sweep-slog off Barker was followed by an audacious scoop shot, a magnificent passage for Lancashire despite the lack of urgency shown by Faulkner.

The Australian all-rounder was eventually put out of his misery when he was caught in the deep by Clarke off Hannon-Dalby (2-59) after adding 20 in 35 balls, a wicket which left Lancashire in a much more commanding position at 240/6. Jordan Clark then departed in similar fashion when he was caught by Ateeq Javid off Barker not long after the loss of Faulkner.

The Bears made the ideal start to their run-chase, reaching 60/0 after ten overs as Porterfield (38) took the aggressive route. The Irish batsman was in dangerous touch, but the introduction of Stephen Parry proved pivotal for Lancashire as he managed to get a ball to grip and turn on Porterfield, who chipped to Croft for a routine catch at 64/1.

Faulkner made amends for his lack of flamboyance with the bat, removing Trott (1) when the former England batsman was caught at point, again by Croft, a wicket which handed Lancashire a degree of control after a strong start for the visitors.

However, Warwickshire resumed control through Chopra and Ambrose as the pair added 102 runs for the third wicket, a partnership which turned out to be vital in the context of such a tightly fought match. Chopra advanced to a composed half-century in 75 balls, while Ambrose followed suit with a 45-ball fifty to back up his captain’s efforts.

As it often does, one wicket brought several and this was necessary for Lancashire to stand any chance of winning the game after Chopra and Ambrose had threatened to walk away with a win without a fight. Ambrose was trapped lbw by Kyle Jarvis (1-39) for 59 and Rikki Clarke (5) followed him back to the pavilion when he was caught by Prince off the economical bowling of Parry.

Wickets continued to tumble for the visitors when Laurie Evans (11) was caught well by Horton off Croft (2-55) at 204/5 and the Lancashire captain struck again in his next over to claim the prized scalp of Chopra when he bowled the opposing captain with a yorker-length delivery.

An interesting and tense finale left Warwickshire needing 44 from the last five overs to win, a position which made Lancashire marginal favourites, but the Bears made the most of the expansive room to play the ball into, as they ran between the wickets without any risk whatsoever.

Faulkner returned to claim the important wicket of Barker (11) when he chipped the ball to Prince at 238/7, but Warwickshire continued to exploit the conditions to keep up with a demanding run rate. A costly misfield from Parry gave Warwickshire a boundary to finish the 48th over and in spite of a tidy over from Faulkner, Lancashire were unable to defend the 13 runs needed for victory.

Bailey was occasionally wayward and he paid the price when Javid hit successive boundaries to secure victory with one ball to spare, as the all-rounder hit 32 not out to guide the Bears home by three wickets, ably assisted by Jeetan Patel’s useful knock of 15 not out.